It is commonplace to moor a boat to a dock or to another boat. Severe weather conditions, such as rough water or turbulent winds can buffet the boat excessively causing damage, or even loss of the boat.
The prior art relating to devices for mooring a boat is extensive. This art includes bumpers or fenders which may be attached either to the boat or to a dock to prevent the boat from being damaged by hitting against the dock due to the action of wind and waves. However, these bumpers rub and scuff the boat often causing moderate but permanent damage to the boat.
Accordingly, mooring devices were developed which separate the boat from the structure to which it is moored. Most of these devices employ a rigid elongated body which is used as a separating bar to cause a boat to standoff from its dock. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,938,492, 3,224,404, 3,863,591 and 3,878,808 disclose typical structures having bars of constant length. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,558,174 and 3,406,651 disclose mooring of several, discrete varying lengths produced by telescoping one element within another. However, these telescoping bars are not infinitely adjustable within the minimum and maximum lengths. Additionally, they are cumbersome to apply in certain docking situations because the length of the rope guy varies with the length of the mooring bar.
The inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,138 discloses a standoff mooring bar which is infinitely variable between minimum and maximum lengths This mooring bar employs a compression locking assembly to fix the adjustable length of a telescoping pair of tubes. The compression locking assembly must be manually locked. The resulting lock can be broken in response to extreme forces developed during mooring.